Franklin Co. Grand Jury Urges Hiring More ADA’s, Jail Expansion

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The Franklin County Grand Jury is asking to meet with the Franklin County Board of Commissioners sometime within the next 45 days to discuss a number of what they believe are urgent issues.

Franklin County’s Grand Jury met last week and submitted a list of recommendations.

At the top of the Grand Jury’s list is the hiring of an additional investigator and additional assistant district attorney for the District Attorney’s office.

A similar recommendation was made last October by the Grand Jury, which also stressed the importance of adding personnel to the DA’s office.

Last fall, Northern Circuit District Attorney Parks White asked Franklin and Hart counties to consider taking some of the burden off his Assistant DA’s by transferring misdemeanor cases to State Court.

“They’re not working 40-hour work weeks. They’re working more than that; often in court sometimes until 9 at night,” White explained. “They can only devote five hours to each case, max. And anytime above that, they have to take time away from other cases. You just can’t handle any felony with five hours. You need preparation time, such as getting and receiving warrants, getting and taking depositions, getting the evidence from the Sheriff’s office, the investigative agencies reviewing that evidence, etc.”

Last week’s Grand Jury recommended that Franklin County fund an additional ADA to handle only misdemeanor cases.

Also listed on the Grand Jury presentments is another recommendation to expand the Franklin County Detention Center.

It’s been a year and a half since the Franklin County Commission has had any discussions in open meetings regarding the jail expansion project.

In their recommendation last week, the Grand Jury wrote “we strongly recommend expanding the jail be made a priority. This has been ignored for far too long to the point of being scandalous.” .

In November 2014, Franklin County Commissioners voted to put part of the $2 million project out to bid, but nothing more has ever been said about it in future meetings.